This is a page written and maintained by Prof. Tonio Buonassisi (with input from many others), which intends to serve as some guidance to those interested in the field.
Advice:
• For Current
Students (Undergrad and Grad) Interested in PV
• For Prospective
Graduate Students
• For Graduating
Students
• For Professionals
Considering a Career Change
• For Installing PV on Your Home, Building, or Boat
References:
• Solar Links on
the Internet
• Reading Material For All Sorts of Audiences
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Advice
for Current Students (Undergrad and Grad) Interested in
PV
• Seek out the existing labs or programs at your university
or neighboring institutions, or even within your community.
There are bound to be weekly or bi-weekly seminars you can
attend that focus on PV. MIT has a very active Energy
Club which sponsors a fantastic array of informal discussions,
seminars, conferences, and other energy-related events in
a constructive politics-neutral atmosphere. There is also
a great page of links to other campus activities. The Harvard
Energy Journal Club also meets to discuss similar topics.
In addition, the Mechanical
Engineering, Sloan
School of Management, Harvard
School of Business, and Materials
Science and Engineering seminars focus on PV from time
to time, and Cambridge
Energy Research Associates (CERA), the Prometheus
Institute for Sustainable Development, the New England
Energy Innovation Collaborative (NEEIC), and the Solar
Energy Business Association of New England (SEBANE) sponsor frequent events. Get connected. Sign up for the
events annoucement listservs, esp. the MIT
Energy Club listserv which provides a weekly summary
of local energy-related events.
• Keep up-to-date with developments in your field
and related fields. There are many websites that will email
you daily, weekly, or monthly updates about scientific
and political developments in energy policy and PV.
The non-academic institutions listed in the previous paragraph
definitely qualify. For those residing or interested in
US energy policy, consider the Girst
Magazine's daily, weekly, or monthly newsletter, available here.
I also hold Solarbuzz, Renewable
Energy Access, The
Solarserver, Top50-Solar in high regard; you can also sign up for the e-newsletters.
There are also numerous good blogs like Gunther
Portfolio and the MIT Solar Blog. The trade journal Photon
International is also highly recommended.
• For graduate students, it can be helpful to have
the library website automatically email you the abstracts
of new publications in your field, containing keywords
of interest (i.e. photovoltaic + crystalline + silicon).
This comes in handy when it's time to write a thesis! Talk
to a library staff member to get started.
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Advice
For Prospective Graduate Students
• There are many different research fields focusing
on specific problems in PV. Therefore, it's important that
you identify your interests so you know
where to start looking. While there is significant overlap
between the following fields, it is important to identify
the areas that you will be best at and, more importantly,
you will enjoy working with the most. After all, graduate
school is a long-term committment: approach it as a marathon,
not a sprint!
• Engineering (Mechanical, Materials Science,
Electrical, Industrial, Civil, Chemical), Physics (Applied),
and Chemistry aspects of PV, such as developing
novel and more efficient materials for solar cells, identifying efficiency-limiting defects in PV-material
and finding ways to minimize their detrimental effects, developing better anti-reflection coating materials
& processes, using & developing scientific equipment
to analyze efficiency-limiting defects in fully-processed
solar cells, studying the long-term degradation of solar cells, transport mechanisms, the effects
of irradiation, developing more efficient
processes for manufacturing solar cells (sustaining
a high-throughput of good-quality PV material at reduced
costs and with minimum negative environmental impacts,
depositing the contact fingers & back contacts, delivering
the product, etc.), minimizing waste and improving
product quality on a solar cell production line,
developing equipment to quickly and accurately monitor
the quality of solar cells on the production line,
etc. If these aspects interest you the most, consider
a graduate school or institute with close ties to industry,
or a PV company at which you can also conduct your Ph.D.
research. PV is truly interdisciplinary, so you may find
your "ideal project" outside of your home department.
That's almost to be expected these days, as the lines
between the disciplines become blurred.
• Theoretical studies of PV, such
as developing models in two- and three-dimensional
for predicting the effects of shunts and low-lifetime
regions of solar cells on the overall fill factor (and
efficiency) of a device, computer simulations to
predict the fill factor given a basic set of solar cell
parameters, etc. If you enjoyed theoretical physics/electrical
engineering, consider a research group pursuing questions
such as these.
• Political Science, Public Policy, and
Economics aspects of solar energy and renewables,
both regional and global. Modelling consumer behavior,
developing intelligent legislation to promote the use
of renewables, designing a balanced renewable energy portfolio
for an individual household or for a country, analyzing
energy markets, interning at government offices, NGOs,
or consumer watchdog groups during the summer months.
If these possibilities sound interesting to you, then
seek a program that will allow you to develop skills in
this direction. Read the advice in the section below on
Bussiness, Management, and Marketing, as some of this
also applies.
• Business, Management, and Marketing aspects
of renewables. Consider a graduate program that will allow
you to build your understanding the current challenges
facing the technology and the industry, give you a solid
background in business and administration, and provide
you the essentials of understanding how PV works (it is
very important you understand the product you are trying
to sell!). It helps to choose a university that has a
good business school as well as strong research programs
in one or more of the areas of study listed above, such
as MIT with its Sloan
School of Management and School
of Engineering. You will have to show initiative and
do some searching on your own, seeking individuals at
your university or institution that will be able to discuss
with you the current issues in the field as they see them,
or suggest some reading material appropriate for your
level of scientific comfortability. Don't expect your
program of study to provide you with all the understanding
you need to be successful in PV. Seek understanding by
networking with professionals in other areas who are also
working with PV and renewables.
• Combination Degree Programs: If your interests span two or more of the fields mentioned
above, consider an interdisciplinary and/or student-designed
curriculum. Many universities offer such interdisciplinary
programs that allow you to focus in one of the areas mentioned
above, while taking some classes from other areas. It
is important that the student who chooses this path of
study be motivated and disciplined, to keep her or his
path of study 'interdisciplinary' and not 'non-disciplinary'
(a class here, a class there, but no focus or thesis).
That's why it is important to identify what you are best
at and what you enjoy doing the most, in order to become
an expert in that area, while keeping breadth and understanding
in other areas relating to PV. To see the big picture,
it helps to understand a part of it really well.
• Be Flexible. Even if possibilities
don't exist in your exact field of interest, choose a project
in a related field that also appeals to you. It is important
to like what you're doing (you're going to be doing it for
years, after all). It is also wise to choose a field of
basic research that will provide you with solid fundamentals
-- if PV is eclipsed by a more advanced technology in a
few years, the skills you acquired during graduate school
will still be applicable to some other field, and you'll
probably enjoy working there as well. Seek the great minds,
and learn from them, even if their research is applicable
to PV but does not focus solely on PV (i.e. a semiconductor
research lab in a mechanical engineering department). Once
you acquire a certain set of skills (familiarity with scientific
equipment and semiconductor fundamentals, for example),
it will become easier for you to join a PV group for a summer
project or a post-doc, for example.
• Choosing a Research Group. Once
you know what your interests are, it's time to select a
research group. Of course, you could enter a degree program,
take only classes for a semester, and then choose a research
group. However, it is helpful to identify a research group
with which to get started (you can always change later!)
for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it will help you decide
whether or not a particular university offers the research
in which you are interested. Secondly, your experience,
whether good or bad, will help you in deciding what you
want to research during your stay at grad school. While
there's no need to panic, it's always good to find a lab
that matches your interests early on. Even if your first
choice research group doesn't work out, you will have gained
experience which will help you find the lab that is right
for you. And last but not least, it will help you gain admittance
into your graduate program. If your future advisor is really
interested in having you join his/her lab, their word may
sway the admissions committee.
The nitty-gritty of choosing a research group is basically
the same in every field. Find the groups in which you are
interested by visiting the websites of other universities
and looking in their "Academic" sections for "Departments",
"Programs of Study" and "Institutes"
which interest you, finding scientific journals in your
library (or online) that relate to PV and reading papers
from different groups to see what sort of work interests
you the most, asking your professors for advice (even heads
of departments of science / engineering; in general, the
more grey hairs, the more experience, the better advice),
surfing the net, etc. Especially helpful is the NREL
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory) website. There
you can see a list of universities collaborating on a number
of PV projects. Similar institutions to NREL exist in Germany
and Japan.
Lastly, once you've identified a few groups that have potential,
contact them. Email the head of the group, and be sure to
choose an email Subject that easily identifies you as an
interested potential graduate student. Introduce yourself
as a student interested in the research of their group,
and present your credentials. Ask to set up a meeting to
visit the lab and to discuss ongoing and future research
projects. If a visit to the lab is not possible, inquire
if a phone interview can be arranged. Visit the website
of the group and try to gather information about the lab.
Read the publication list and choose two or three interesting
articles for in-depth reading. The professor will appreciate
your interest in her or his work. Do not be discouraged
if there is no immediate answer from the head of the group;
the professor may either be traveling or may not have read
your email (heads of laboratories are usually extremely
busy). Try waiting a few weeks and sending another email,
and/or follow up your email with a polite phone message
(Hello, my name is Jane, and I am calling in reference to
an email I sent you on November 19th. I am a senior undergraduate
applied physics student at Brown University who is interested
in...).
You want to choose a lab that you'll be happy working in,
and you'll also eventually want to graduate. Before you
commit to a school, be sure to contact members of the group
working on the projects in which you are interested. Ask more than one graduate student how long it takes,
on average, to get a Ph.D. from their research group, if
they have regular contact with their advisor, if they feel
they are receiving proper guidance for their research, if
they are happy working at that lab, etc. Graduate students
have nothing to hide, and are usually bloodily honest about
their working conditions. Write down their names and emails
so you can contact them with any additional questions.
• Standardized Testing. Figure out
which ones are necessary for the graduate program to which
you are applying. Get these out of the way early, and score
well. This will help you not only get admitted to the graduate
school, but more importantly, with the following:
• Funding. One of the realities of
life. Putting it gently, there is rather limited funding
for PV research. Thus, while not a fundamental prerequisite,
financial independence can really help you land
the position in the lab, school, and degree program of your
choice. One can achieve financial independence either by
winning the lottery or a fellowship. Believe it or not,
the latter is easier. There are many fellowships available
for prospective graduate students; the trick is to start
applying early because many have deadlines as early as November.
Some of the most common are:
• NSF: Usually for US citizens
only. Visit their website for to search for awards & fellowships for which you may
be eligible.
• NDSEG Fellowships: Support for
grad students.
• University Fellowships: Available
in limited amounts through your department or university.
Inquire with your department about nomination procedures
and deadlines. Usually your future department (i.e. your
future advisor) will have to nominate you for one of these.
While not a prerequisite, it usually helps if you are
a minority student, if you have received fantastic grades,
and/or if you are the first in your family to attend graduate
school.
• The Summer Before You Start. Consider
one of the following options for the summer before you start
your graduate program.
• Get an early start in your new lab: It can be really helpful to get an early start in your
new lab. You'll find that not having the pressure of classes
can be really helpful to bring you up to speed. You'll
begin to familiarize yourself with the equipment, get
to know the ongoing research projects, maybe help out
with a few of them, attend group meetings, become a part
of the group... the feeling of utter uselessness that
most graduate students experience upon joining a new research
group can be more quickly dispelled. In addition, you
can get your paperwork taken care of, take the necessary
safety training courses, get your university ID card...
all the pesky little things that add up to a big hastle
when you add classes to the big picture.
• Do research at a collaborating institution: If you have your heart set on a research group, consider
doing a summer project at an institution with which your
future lab collaborates. Ask you future advisor about
this possibility. It may be good to establish personal
contacts with some of your collaborators. REU (research
experience for undergraduates) funding for university
labs, as well as for national labs, is available for graduating
seniors in exceptional cases. That could mean you. Pick
a nice spot on the map that will allow you to do the activities
you enjoy during the summer, while gaining some research
experience. For example, consider an REU
at NREL or at another national laboratory the summer
preceeding graduate school.
• Travel or take time off from school: This is one of the last 'big holidays' you are going to
be able to enjoy. If you feel you're close to burn-out
from your undergraduate years, take some time off. Travel
the world, do a service project in Latin America or close
to home, or just relax by the swimming pool. Graduate
school is a long-term committment. As such, consider your
own physical and mental health. Approach it as a marathon,
not as a sprint. If you need time off to get a good start,
do so. Consider taking a month off after graduation and
then engaging in one of the above activities, for example.
• Follow Your Best Judgement. Consider
what is written above, but think beyond what is written
on this website. You got this far, and you'll make it farther.
This above is merely designed to provide some sense of encouragement
and direction, and to point out some common pitfalls. |
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Advice
for Graduating Students
• Multiple Career Options: Industry, University,
or Other? This is a very good question, worth dedicating
serious thought to. One size doesn’t fit all, so it’s
important to know what your options are, to have a realistic
perception of the realities of each option, to know what
you’re exceptionally good at, and most importantly,
to know what flavor of life balance you will enjoy: A family?
Save the world from anthropogenic climate change? Money?
Fame? A prosperous career? How much of each? As a graduating
student from a well-regarded university, your career options
are virtually limitless. You are the new blood entering
the workforce, with new skills, a fresh vision of the world,
energy, enthusiasm, and motivation. Especially in the U.S.,
which produces many less PV experts per capita than Japan
and Germany, you are a prized resource. Do not let your
lack of experience get you down. Although you may not know
it, you are in a good negotiating position within a growing
market; put simply, there are several charioteers looking
for new blood to pull their chariots. Nevertheless, you
may find yourself limited by your lack of a clear understanding
of what your options are, and what your value is. Most of
the advice below is written for students graduating with
a Ph.D., but some of the below applies to Master's and Bachelor's
degrees as well.
• Industrial Options. A few oversimplified
generalities about a the different flavors of PV company
that are out there:
• Start-up solar companies: Risky
but exciting. Because of the limited number of hands on
deck, you’ll likely be thrust into positions of
huge individual responsibility, and will mature quickly
as a jack-of-all-trades: from the more glamarous pursuits
(e.g., manager, scientist, engineer, machinist) to the
equally necessary (e.g., lab manager, contract negotiator,
purchasing agent, auditor, safety coordinator). The company
will succeed or fail based on your individual contribution.
Start-up companies are generally not in a great negotiating
position with outside vendors (no pedigree), and may face
difficulties growing among more established players. Nevertheless,
there is potentially a huge financial benefit if the company
IPOs successfully; for completeness, calculate how much
a couple thousand stock options should be worth, and make
sure you negotiate a few of these into your offer letter.
Before jumping on board, request information regarding
the technology and the financial situation of the company
(business plan, amount of start-up funding, funding sources,
investment firms, CEO track record, intended market, relationships
of the chief executive officers and board members with
suppliers and customers, exact plan moving forward one,
two, and five years), and then ask some unbiased "experts"
for their opinions (folks in VC firms and business schools
tend to be very knowledgeable), in order to estimate the
chances of success.
• Small- to medium-sized solar companies: Increasing structure in the company both enables large
projects to flow more efficiently, but it also creates
a growing resistance to individual contributions outside
of well-defined project areas. Increasing emphasis on
the team rather than the individual allows cross-functional
teams to form, and teams will be small enough for you
to continue to have a real impact. Likely, there will
be a heavy emphasis on bringing a new product into the
market, thus you may not have the luxury of performing
as much cutting-edge research as you may like, with R&D
energies devoted to product development and process engineering.
Nevertheless, there will likely be lots of low-hanging
fruit for a bright mind like yours to pick. If you ascribe
to management's vision for the company's future, then
you may play an important part of molding the corporate
culture and scientific excellence, and you may quickly
find yourself responsible for some very large projects
instrumental to the company’s success.
• Medium- to large-sized solar companies: More rigid, more secure. If you perform well, you will
likely not be laid off from your job if the sector goes
for a downturn, because the company likely won't close
its doors. There are many more opportunities for lateral
and upwards career moves within a big company than a smaller
one. Big companies have plenty of momentum, but plenty
of inertia, too. More time is needed to make an impact,
bring about change; established company culture is extremely
engrained and difficult to change. Your colleagues may
not be as motivated as you, and rigid cost structuring
for project work may limit your hours and prevent you
from informally lending a hand on exciting projects. Caution
against getting caught up in the middle of a turf war.
On the flip side, formal pathways tend to be better developed,
and career advancement and training pathways tend to be
more structured and formalized. Entry-level benefits packages,
while typically less flexible than in smaller companies,
may be more generous. Huge resources enable huge projects,
and relationships forged in other areas of the company
may facilitate product sales to customers in new markets
-- both factors that enable fast expansion, if (and only
if) management is fully behind the solar initiative. The
company pedigree alone may open future career options.
• Where in the Value Chain?: Mainstream
PV technology essentially consists of five general steps
in the supply chain: production of silicon, wafer, cell
(device), module, and installation. On top of this, there
are balance of systems components. Very few companies
are currently vertically integrated, although the industry
is trending in this direction. Where do you fit in?
• A few grossly oversimplified trends in
industry life:
• Some companies are "pure-play" solar,
i.e., they do not have any other assets or industrial
activities in other markets. Examples include Evergreen
Solar, Q-Cells,
and SunPower/PowerLight.
You can expect solar to be more of a central focus in
a pure-play company than a larger, more diversified
company. Nevertheless, larger companies may have resources
and synergies from other departments that can greatly
assist the development of PV technologies. Examples
include BP Solar and GE Solar.
• The better you negotiate the terms of your offer
letter and make the position work for you, the happier
you'll be. For instance, it is generally easier to negotiate
your salary before an offer letter is signed, and it's
important to do so because future positions will use
your current salary as a reference point to some degree.
If considered important, attempt to include in your
offer some description of your responsibilities, free
time to work on project(s) of your choice (e.g., "Google
20%"), ability to attend professional conferences,
moving expenses, health/dental care, extra vacation
days, maternal/paternal leave, flexible hours, and anything
else that you might agree upon during discussions. Gentlemens'
agreements may not be worth much, but written contracts
are. Read up on job offer negotiation by loaning books
from your university or local libraries.
• Industry moves forward predominantly because
of focused, team-based efforts, especially in larger
companies. Coming from a university environment, you
are probably more accustomed to progress based on individual
contributions. There are many roles a scientist can
play within a company, including individual contributor,
project leader, and manager. Often, a scientist will
be involved in a few parallel projects, possibly performing
different roles for each.
• You'll get to play with lots of cool toys. Industry
labs are generally much better funded than universities.
You'll be able to make your work have an impact in the
real world. Your experiments may include large, statistically
meaningful batches of thousands of units, instead of
a handful of "hero" samples sufficient for
sending off a paper. Just make sure your research needs
get put into the budget.
• Work is efficient, and the pace of progress
is swift. There is always someone else out there who
wants your lunch. Hour for hour, people tend to get
more done in less time within a company than at a U.S.
university, and the work-family balance is generally
easier to maintain because of the more fixed hours and
general practice of not working weekends. Nevertheless,
many exceptions exist to this rule, and at a start-up
company, a company with a strong work ethic, or in a
higher-level position, you'll easily spend as much time
at work as a professor up for tenure review.
• Information does not flow as easily as it does
in a university. Much of what you do cannot be communicated
with the outside world. It is not uncommon for a scientist
at a university or research institute to receive a prestigious
award for something industry scientists discovered years
ago, but were unable to communicate beyond the restricted
audience involved in the project.
• Maintaining a presence in the academic community
can be exhausting, and may even be discouraged from
within the company. Nevertheless, your presence will
be requested at conferences and seminars, as (a) some
industry scientists are interested in venturing beyond
their comfortable company lives to form broad long-term
relationships with universities and research labs, and
(b) universities and national laboratories are interested
in staying up to date with the latest developments in
industry and to explore possible financed collaborations.
If you put in the effort, you'll benefit by staying
in touch with the latest coming out of research labs
across the globe. If this sounds exciting, then do your
best to keep this branch of your professional life alive,
and seek to publish and present at conferences when
possible.
• Dr. Kotaro Honda once stated “industry
is the dojo of learning”. While true,
the learning style in industry is very different from
a university. Quick pace means that sometimes, a superficial
understanding suffices if the end goal can be reached,
i.e., to produce a process or product that makes more
money. Success is gauged not in how much you understand,
but ultimately, how much your work has contributed to
the bottom line. Understanding and knowledge are important
and necessary enablers, but not end goals in and of
themselves.
• Seek out companies that invest in your professional
training. Short-term training may consist of learning
a new software package or skill (e.g., interview skills,
circuit diagrams, statistics). Long-term leadership,
team building, and management training will ultimately
prepare you for a senior management position (e.g.,
director of research and development or CEO) or to a
technical fellow position (where you’ll be managing
a handful of people but won’t lose contact with
the lab). In many larger companies, both the technical
staff and management are appreciated on near equal grounds,
and compensated accordingly.
• If you value accelerated career advancement,
it is generally a good idea to play a central role in
the projects vital to a company's success, which will
receive abundant praise, recognition, and rewards if
successful. Find out what projects the best and brightest
people in the company are working on, and work in good
company.
• Lastly, very few people stay at one company
their entire life. Be loyal to your company, but not
dead loyal. If it's not working for you, seek alternatives.
Long term, both you and your company will be better
off. But before pulling the plug, be sure to give yourself
some time to become acclimated with an industrial life
-- depending on the size of the company, several years
may be necessary to really have an impact on an institution.
Throughout this experience, pause from time to time
to reflect on your long-term career goals, and identify
opportunities that will take you closer to those.
• Listing of PV Companies: The Solar Energy Industries
Association has a comprehensive
list of member companies. Some of these are more active
in the PV arena than others, see, e.g., PVNow.
• Academic Options. Academia offers
attractive career options to self-motivated individuals
who desire freedom to perform cutting-edge research. Resources
will typically be more limited, but the level of discovery,
communication, and discourse can be high. If this sounds
appealing to you, consider a career in academia.
• Employment: Several colleges
and universities have recently declared energy as a major
research focus, and have begun searching agressively in
this field for post-docs and professorships. Sign up for
alerts on naturejobs and ScienceCareers for job postings in your field, and visit departmental
homepages for specific job listings. Stay connected with
friends and colleagues in academia, and request that they
send you an email when positions open up.
• Funding: Traditionally, US government
support for national renewable energy research has been
very weak [see Margolis and Kammen, Science 285 (1999) 690] compared to Europe and Japan. Despite this
reality, rising popular and student interest have spurred
many laboratories to begin investigating renewable energy
materials and devices, including PV. During the last few
years, novel funding sources, including foundations and
sympathetic alumni networks, have been identified. Very
recently, the Department
of Energy has allocated significant resources and
is issuing a series of calls for proposals for PV-related
research, signalling a welcome change in direction.
• Listing of Research Labs working on PV: To my knowledge, there is no central listing of academic
institutions / research groups working on PV. Nevertheless,
you can get a pretty good feel for the lay of the land
by looking at the proceedings from a recent European
Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, IEEE Photovoltaic
Specialists Conference, or World
Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion. Fundamental
and "future-generation" work is also showcased
at the Materials
Research Society biannual meetings.
• Other Options. NB: My mentioning
of specific organizations by no means implies my endorsement.
• Go Government: Join a public
policy group, a non-for-profit, a non-governmental organization,
a think tank, or a group dedicated to international development.
Examples range from the small to the behemoth,
and each flavor has its distinct pros and cons. Some examples
include the NRDC, Sierra Club, PIRG, UCS, NET, ED, NDCF,
the Hudson
Institute and the Prometheus
Institute, among many others. As always, it's a good
idea to get recommendations from others in the field before
signing for a particular organization, just to confirm
it is what you think it is.
• Go Rich: There are several career
options that pay far better than industry and academia,
for instance, consulting (e.g., McKinsey)
or lucrative positions managing money in emerging financial
markets. Each have their own unique intellectual challenges
and lifestyles. An added benefit, you'll brush shoulders
with the people who make our capitalist world turn. See
an excellent article entitled Gilded
Paychecks: Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices 11/27/06 in the New York Times, and related articles in
that series, for further information. As a donor, you
can catalyze and guide the development of your favorite
charitable organizations and educational institutions.
• Go Long: Start your own company,
or help others start their own. Plug into the venture
capital markets, and discover the thrills of entrepreneurialism.
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Advice
for Professionals Considering a Career Change into PV
• Get to Know the Field. Read up,
especially trade journals like Photon
International, to get a sense of what's hot and where
the field is moving. More sources, especially online, are
listed in the "advice for current
students" section. Attend conferences, both the
big ones (e.g., Solar
Power Conference, European
Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, IEEE Photovoltaic
Specialists Conference, or World
Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion), and especially
smaller gathering such as the NREL
Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, where you'll
get a greater chance to talk one-on-one with leaders in
the field. Request informational interviews with folks in
the field. Travel to visit them at their companies to gain
a personal understanding through face-to-face interactions.
Attend local events (see "advice
for current students"). Pursue an MBA at a solar-centric
school like MIT, Harvard, or UC Berkeley.
• Be Brave. Now is a good time to
join. The field is growing, and numerous start-ups are offering
attractive packages for individuals bringing solid business,
management, and scientific skills into the field. There
are numerous opportunities for career changes into PV, and
renewables in general. Go ahead, take the plunge! The best
way to predict the future is to create it. |
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Solar
Links
Much energy has already been spent compiling extensive
lists of internet sites relating to solar energy and renewable
energy policy. I won't reinvent the wheel; instead, I list
a few links to other lists of links:
• Basic Stuff:
For Everyone: Basic Info About PV and How PV Works
For Data Gatherers: EIA's stats on PV: Website and Reports
For Teachers & Lecturers: Education Tools
How a Solar Cell is Manufactured, a tutorial by Q-Cells
How it Works, a tutorial by BP Solar
Other Forms of Solar Energy
A Guide to Photovoltaic (PV) System Design and Installation
• Solar Data & Resources:
NorCalSolar
IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme, and reports therein
• Installing
Solar PV:
FindSolar:
Locate a solar energy system installer near you, estimate
solar savings for your home or business
Install Solar Panels on your Boat: A
How-To Guide, Additional
Considerations.
List
of PV Installers in Massachusetts.
A list of Subsidies
and Tax Breaks from all states.
• PV & Renewables Info, News, Events, & Listservs:
Tonio's Pick: Solarbuzz (subscribe here)
Girst Magazine (subscribe here.)
California Solar Center (subscribe here.)
• Massachusetts PV & Legislation Links:
PV
in MA: Guidelines for Installation, Financing, Subsidies,
Purchasing "Clean Power"
Energy
in Massachusetts: Facts and Figures
MA
Renewable Energy Trust; and database of financed systems
MA
Green Energy Fund
MA
PV Systems Output Tracker
For add'l data: Run a search on Google with keywords "solar energy" and "your city or state."
• California PV & Legislation Links:
California Energy Commission (CEC)
Consumer Energy Center
CA Renewable Energy Rebate Database
Energy Efficiency and Conversion Tips
Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD)
California Legislation on PV & Other Renewables
More on CA Legislation Re: PV
• US Industry:
List of PV Companies in the US
• Universities and Research Institutions: Solar energy research is truly an international activity,
attracting some of the brightest scientists. Here's a partial
list below. If I missed you, please send me an email with
a link! Thanks in advance!
Australia
Australian National University, Acton, Australia
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Europe, outside Germany
Energy Center for the Netherlands, Petten, Netherlands
IMEC, Leuven, Belgium
Center for Renewable Energy (NTNU, SINTEF, and IFE), Norway
SINTEF, Trondheim, Norway
University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
TECSEN, Marseilles, France
Germany
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) Freiburg
University of Konstanz, Konstanz
Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH), Emmerthal
Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics (MPI-Halle), Halle
IHP/BTU Jointlab, Cottbus
ACCESS, Aachen
Japan
Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Sendai
Toyota Technological Institute, Nagoya, Japan
United States
MIT, Cambridge, MA
UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Georgia Tech's Center for Photovoltaic Research, Atlanta, GA
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO
• Scientific PV Links:
Tonio's Pick: DOE's Explanation of Different Technologies
NREL's
PV Data Page (insolation, simulations, etc.)
• Links to Other Pages of Solar Links:
ISE's Links
BP's Links
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Reading
Material
• For people who were never really good at
physics, but still want to know how PV works:
Photovoltaic
Design Manual
Check out the Solar Links above!
• For people comfortable with science, but
without much previous exposure to semiconductor physics:
Solar Electricity. Edited by Tomas Markvart (University
of Southampton, UK). John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 1994.
• More advanced reading for people comfortable
with semiconductor physics:
Alan L. Fahrenbruch and Richard H. Bube (Stanford University,
USA). Fundamentals of Solar Cells. Academic Press,
1983
Martin A. Green (University of New South Wales, Australia). Operating Principles, Technology and System Applications.
University of New South Wales, 1998.
Antonio Luque and Steven Hegedus. Handbook of Photovoltaic
Science and Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, 2003.
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Kudos!
Last but not least, thanks to these individuals, who brought
to my attention some of the coolest links above: Jessy Baker,
Joel Conkling, Becca Jones, Adam Lorenz, Antonia Herzog.
Please note that any errors or dead links are entirely my
fault.
If you'd like to opine, please email Tonio! |
